Objectives

FY2004
The Jesup North Pacific Expedition (1897-1902) was an unprecedented anthropological survey organized and implemented by the American Museum of Natural History at the behest of famed anthropologist Franz Boas. The results were published in a report series running to 11 volumes. The lifestyles and cultures of indigenous peoples living scattered throughout this region, which were the object of this investigation (areas of the Pacific coast north of the Columbia River on the North American side and north of the Amur River in Asia) have since been washed over by waves of modernization and undergone tremendous changes in the century since the expedition. This research will use the work of researchers who have actually done contemporary field research in this region, as well as existing records of oral traditions to make specific comparisons with the results of Jesup, so as to clarify the degree of change that the cultures of these various ethnic groups have undergone. We will also discuss how resistance to discrimination and assimilation policies have affected these various ethnic groups during the process of their incorporation into the modern state, as well as problems they face in how they can build their own identities..